Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex strode through a marsh, the stink of the water only masked by the flowers that seemed to grow here. Even though he hadn't been here for it, he still picked up a few flowers that were Alchemy ingredients.

It was a surprise to him they hadn't been destroyed yet.

Close to 10 months had passed since he had entered the secret realm, close to the day he would pass all of the Monarch's bets and earn himself a fortune, despite the circumstances he had put himself in early on.

Although, he had never given much thought to their bets. He always knew he was strong enough to survive for long. The only reason he even gave any thought to those bets was because of what he was going to get in return.

Shan Wangjiu fought with another cultivator in the back, his sword shining with a white outline as he slammed it onto the cultivator multiple times. Even though his Sword Intent itself wasn't as strong, the strength of his cultivation base alone made him quite a terrifying fighter.

Anyone who lasted this long had to be one.

Alex ignored the young man, making his way to find more fighters. Not many had made their way to him these past few months and he missed the constant battles he had during the first 6 months, even if they had been particularly tiring at times.

Once the sound of the fighting behind him stopped, Alex heard Shan Wangjiu call out to him. "Master! Master!" 

Shan Wangjiu rushed to where he was and smiled at him. "I won!" he said with a toothy grin.

"Great," Alex said. "Now fight me."

Shan Wangjiu did his best to put up a fight, but against Alex, he was still too weak. Even Alex alone with Sword Intent was too strong for him now, let alone when he was using Qi.

Alex didn't hold back when it came to sword fighting against the young man as he used every opportunity during the fight to teach him. Outside of battles, he wanted to find others to improve his swords on.

The young man lost, but that was expected. Alex won his first battle of the day as well, and that was something good. 

This was the method the two of them had come to settle on in the past 3 months. Every day after reset, they would go looking out for fighters.

Alex would fight the strong fighters, and Shan Wangjiu would fight the weaker ones. Whoever it was that fought, they would either win or lose their first battle of the day.

Then, they would challenge each other, gaining a free win for their first match of the day.

Until today, Alex had received only 1 Loss, only the one he received on the first reset. As for the young man, he didn't tell Alex how many losses he had, but he had lost around 7 times in the last few months he had been with him.

Together, they had managed to go over 100 days with only 7 losses in between them. That was quite impressive, Alex thought.

Alex took out his talisman and looked through it. 

Name: Alex, King of the Southern Continent

Acquired Points: 31536

Losses: 1/30

Out of Bounds: 0/5

Origin: Southern Continent

"Hey, Shan," he called out. "How many points do you have?"

"Points?" the young man asked and quickly checked. "2483."

"And Loss?" Alex continued.

The young man simply smiled. "Don't worry about that, Master," he said. "I'll stay with you for much longer."

Alex shook his head. 'That's quite the disparity in points still," he thought. He hadn't given much thought to the points for a while now, but seeing how much he was gaining, he felt it wasn't right. 

And he had indeed been right in thinking so. 

He chuckled a little. "I unknowingly exploited the rules, it seems," he said out loud.

"Exploited? What do you mean, Master?" the young man asked.

"I have more points than that should be possible," Alex told him. 

When the young man heard how many points Alex had, he thought he had heard him wrong. He asked him to double-check and was flabbergasted to learn it was real.

"But… but how?" he asked for an answer.

"Whoever made the rules messed up," Alex said. "Or maybe they simply didn't think so far ahead. They never imagined someone like me entering the secret realm."

The young man eyed him with confusion. He wanted him to talk more. Alex did.

"How do you earn points?" Alex asked him.

"Whenever I win a battle," the young man said. It was obvious.

"How many times can you battle?" Alex asked him.

"I don't think there's much of a limit to it." Shan Wangjiu propped his sword on his shoulder, wondering why Alex was asking such a simple question.

"If no one wanted to challenge you, how many times could you battle?" Alex asked.

The young man frowned. "If no one wanted to challenge me? Then none?" he asked.

"No one wants to challenge," Alex said. "Not that they won't accept if you challenge."

"Oh," the young man nodded and thought for a bit. "3 times," he answered. "That's the rule. You can only challenge 3 different times in a single day to earn points. All challenges after that do not give you points."

"Yes, and it is made that way so that a strong cultivator wouldn't exploit his strength and challenge whoever he can," Alex said. "It's a small deterrent to make him choose his first 3 fighters, instead of just challenging any weakling."

"But I ended up having people challenge me all day round, and even come back multiple days in a row. And best of all, I accepted every challenge," Alex said. "So, even on the worst days, I was making points after points."

"I don't think the ones who made the rules ended up thinking one could earn points like this, did they?" Alex asked.

"Hmm, maybe not," the young man said. "Or maybe they left behind a way to get points."

"Maybe," Alex said. "Still, I'm doing quite well thanks to them."

"You are, Master. Those many points and it hasn't even been—" Shan Wangjiu stopped speaking the moment he felt multiple spiritual senses pass through him and focus around them.

Alex looked around and saw a few people from outside the marsh make their way toward them. They landed in front of them, 3 men and 2 women. One of the men was almost as young looking as Alex and Shan Wangjiu, and two of the women looked to be not that old either.

Together, they smiled at Alex and Shan Wangjiu, but not a good smile. It was almost as if they hadn't recognized who he was.

That was not something Alex thought was still possible within the secret realm.

They looked in between the two of them, and with Shan Wangjiu's cultivation base being just 1 realm below Alex, the oldest man of them pointed toward him.

"You! Will you fight me to a duel?" he asked.

Shan Wangjiu hesitated a little seeing the man's Saint Transformation 1st realm cultivation base, but even then he nodded.

"I accept."